--- title: 'A few words on FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS' categories: - blog abstract: A very short review of a great technical book. date: 2023-12-10T18:54:48+02:00 draft: false --- {{}} Yesterday evening I have finished [*FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS*](https://mwl.io/nonfiction/os#fmzfs) by Michael W. Lucas and Allan Jude. It is my "yet another" read from Michael W. Lucas (MWL) and "yet another" time when my expectations were high. Luckily, as always, the book surpassed them. But first thing first: the introduction chapter lies and no prior knowledge about file systems is needed. I always considered them as the thing that puts 0 and 1 on the disc and nothing more. The book changed my mind and didn't assume I knew anything that would not be required to install FreeBSD. This is the first book a dilogy. The second one, *Advanced ZFS*, is said to go into advanced (badum-tss) subjects, so authors had space and time to actually explain the basics. I now have a reference to *think* about FreeBSD - why it exists, how to use, why I should not think of hardware RAID. A lot of space in the book is dedicated to *how* ZFS works with subjects like *copy on right* idea, *compression*, or *reduplication*. As for the daily usage, I now know why one would use a lot of Datasets and why Snapshots are great. This has already transformed how I use my computer, as I have migrated a lot of directories into dedicated Snapshots. I also understand why the [FreeBSD.org guide to Jails](https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/jails/#host-configuration-directories) proposes ZFS Dataset copies as a way to create new jails. ZFS is completely different beast to any file system I use and requires thinking in novel way to get anything above something like NTFS. It far from natural so having a good guide is a blessing. I can recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject without a second of doubt. And the cover is amazing. MWL's covers are always distinct and this is no exception. Read as PDF on Onyx Boox Note Air 2. Book bought from [Tilted Wind Press](https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/?product=fmzfs). Next up: [Cybersecurity for Small Networks: A No-Nonsense Guide for the Reasonably Paranoid](https://nostarch.com/cybersecurity-small-networks)